Sprint 3 (Feb 22 - Mar 10)

Sprint 3, held from February 22 to March 10, emphasized UI/UX improvements and polishing based on early feedback. We added a pause feature with a proper UI, enhanced the drone interface to show battery levels and damage, and visually implemented the claw model for the grabbing mechanic. To better support upgrade mechanics, we developed clear UI components for grabber and camera upgrades. More drone-related assets and vehicles were added to populate the city. Aesthetic improvements included the introduction of character icons and additional feedback was collected to address any lingering usability issues. We also  added the pigeon attacking mechanic.

This sprint is also where we made our earliest iteration of our finalized map, which was roughly six times larger than our original environment. It's enclosed mountains to contain the scope of the game and prevent the drone from going out of bounds. This bigger map also allowed the art team to implement many unimplemented city assets including new delivery shop types adorned with a giant version of whatever food they would make along with, traffic lights, fire hydrants, and new building types to make the city more visually diverse. The modular "cobble buildings" gave the city a futuristic aesthetic and their unique designs could let the drone thread it's way through the city, two larger buildings were also placed in an area without houses to create a sort of downtown area. 

Following early playtests, we addressed Alpha Feedback in a dedicated list of improvements. These included simplifying the mission popup for clearer instructions, enabling toggles for camera auto-alignment during drone movement, and refining controls based on the original design document. We also enhanced the pickup and drop-off system by making pizza delivery locations automatic and made these locations more obvious by displaying them on the minimap with a directional arrow.

Aesthetic improvements included the introduction of character icons, menu music, along with additional feedback collected to address any lingering usability issues.

This sprint finalized our search for the perfect drone flying mechanic after many iterations. With many people still finding that the drone was too difficult to control, we decided to scrap the whole idea of the drone requiring skill to fly, and decided to make it just move in the direction the camera is looking. While this was disappointing as it deviated from our original visions of the game, it did allow the player to focus less on getting the drone to move, and more on having the drone move through the various obstacles throughout the map.

The attacking pigeons was a feature that turned out better than we anticipated. We loved the idea that the pigeons would be incredibly aggressive and move like homing missiles. An image we had in mind was the drone narrowly dodging a pigeon like a fighter jet rolling at the last second to dodge a missile in an action movie. To support this, we made the pigeons much faster than the player, but made them have a very wide turning radius, which would allow skilled players to outmaneuver them by moving in a zig-zag pattern, or flying through buildings.

To actually pull this off, complicated logic had to be added to the pigeons. The pigeon homing logic would have to figure out not only where the player is in relation to itself, but also where the player and itself will be in the future. The pigeon would always move forward, and it would have to turn towards the expected position of the player in order to hit it, like a missile would.

In the end, we ended up getting our most iconic feature of the game; not the drone, but the hungry, hungry pigeons.